


Looking Glass

by redradioflyer



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Doppelganger, M/M, Mirror Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 15:49:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17083217
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redradioflyer/pseuds/redradioflyer
Summary: There's a man in the mirror who shares Alfred's face- sometimes Alfred sees him move when he shouldn't and other times he catches flashes of red hair instead of his own blonde. The man in the mirror has been talking to him, but no one believes him. One night the man tempts Alfred through the mirror and into a different place, and even though they share the same face, Alfred finds him rather erotically drawn to him...





	1. Siren Song

“There’s a man in the mirror, Matthew.”

“That’s called your reflection, dumb butt,” Matthew says back. He’s knee deep in calculus homework, and he doesn’t have time to listen to Alfred.

“No it’s not me. He doesn’t move quite at the right time. Sometimes his hair is red.”

Matthew rolls his eyes and grabs his books. “I’m going to go to the living room. I’m busy, and you’re being ridiculous.”

Alfred watches him go and sighs. He’s tried to bring this up before to Matthew, but it hadn’t worked. Then again, why should the other believe him? It was ridiculous to think someone lived in the mirror, and the two had gotten high in their dorm room a couple times. Maybe Matthew just thought this was one of those high dreams that had stuck with him. Even still, the man in the mirror is looking at him, and he taps the glass to get Alfred’s attention now that Matthew is gone.

It’s a long full length mirror. It was a gift from their mother who had wanted Alfred to be mindful of his fashion and appearance. There in the glass the stranger with his face smiles at him.

 _“Tonight,”_ he whispers. _“Come to me tonight, and we can meet for real.”_

Alfred is frightened of this man, has been since he first saw him move independently. He was even more frightened when he heard the other speak for the first time- he had a voice that sounded like ice breaking. He wondered if the glass between them did that.

“Al, are you a ghost…?” he asks in response, moving close to the mirror. Alfred is fascinated by him after having talked to him so many times- still horrified but curious. The other has been harmless enough so far.

The reflection presses his hand to the backside of the glass, giving him an imploring expression. Alfred cautiously presses his fingers over the hand and gasps a little in surprise- the glass seemed thinner now that it ever had before. When he glances back up in shock at his free-moving reflection, he can see the man for what he really looks like- red hair and fiery eyes.

There was something about the shadows in the curve of his smile that scares Alfred- makes his heart beat loudly against his chest.

“ _Come to me tonight, and we’ll meet for sure. Please come.”_

Something about the desperate edge to his voice makes Alfred pull his hand sharply away from the glass. Suddenly it’s just his own reflection again, blinking back at him. He shakes his head and knows he’s not going to get any work done tonight.

He takes some Tylenol and goes to bed early.

—

It’s 2:23.  

Alfred is awake- groggy and confused but awake. He blinks around the darkness, trying to find what roused him. Rubbing at his eyes, he fumbles for his glasses.

Then there it is, the gentle  _tap tap tap_ of fingers on glass.

“ _Alfred_ ….?”

Alfred’s heart is beating faster instantly. He stands, and he looks toward the mirror. The man in the glass smiles and turns a lamp on. It doesn’t help much. It just shines an eerie sort of glow from the mirror.

Still, the beckoning is hard to deny. Alfred is so curious about him, so interested in the man that shares his face. He stands and walks slowly toward the mirror. “Are you hypnotizing me?” Alfred asks in a breathless shaking voice.

The reflection laughs. “ _Is that what this feels like to you?”_

Alfred nods, and something in the reflection’s face changes and softens. At the same time, his eyes are still predatory. All of Alfred’s instincts tell him to run, but his feet lead him forward still. “Yes… it does.” Alfred presses his fingers to the glass. It’s a weird sensation, the glass ripples under his fingertips like water.

_“Put your hand through. You can come here. We’ll see about that hypnotism huh?”_

Alfred hesitates. Al, this reflection of himself, smiles his encouragement, and he nods.

The feeling of his hand passing through the glass is strange and icy cold. Once he has pushed his hand all the way through, though,  strong warm fingers close around his wrist. He gasps in surprise at the touch, but he’s yanked through the mirror before he can process it. It’s like being doused with cold water.

The world on the other side of the mirror is darker than he had thought- the shadows seem to move and skitter, and Alfred regrets his decision almost immediately. He starts to panic and try to yank away to go back to his room.

“Don’t look at the shadows, Alfred, only me. It’s me, Al, remember, we’ve talked before. Look only at me.”

His voice sounds different now, warm and close and human. Alfred looks up and makes eye contact. Al’s eyes are focused and almost glowing in the dark.  

“I told you that we could meet.”

Then the other leans down and kisses him hard on the mouth. Alfred is groggy and confused, his senses much too overloaded to be able to process what was going on. Al is insistent, and after a moment of confused struggling, Alfred is kissing him back. This had to be some bizarre, narcissistic wet dream, because how could any of this be real?

It certainly felt real, Al’s teeth on his lips, his tongue shoving into his mouth, the fingers that are yanking down his pajama pants.  

Alfred breaks away from his mouth, panting and gripping at Al’s shoulders. “Too fast… too fast…” He felt dizzy now, intoxicated. Perhaps he was. It was the only explanation for this.

Al smirks at him and shrugs. “I’ll go slow with you then.”

Alfred lets the other guide him down onto the bed and pull his clothing off. The other slides hands down his sides, kisses his neck and collar bone. He trails kisses and touches down his body. Alfred is putty in his hands- it’s like his double knows exactly where he’s the most sensitive and just how best to touch him.

“How.. god, how, can you…?” Alfred gasps out as he grips at the sheets of this bed that looked so much like his but isn’t. 

Al’s fingers are on his thighs, caressing him just so, and his lips are locked around his nipple. The other laughs.

“I’m touching you how I like it. Figured you’d like it too yeah?”

Alfred lets out a ragged breath and can’t seem to respond- he’s too distracted watching the other slide down his body. When Al’s mouth closes around his cock, Alfred no longer thinks about it anymore. He just submits to the pleasure the other gives him.

—

When Alfred wakes up, he’s disoriented. He feels sore in all the strangest places.

“Maybe it was that dream…?” he says to the empty room, but when he tries to stand he realizes it’s not just the normal sleep sore that comes from laying in a strange way. He looks down at himself, his pajamas gone and dried semen splattered over his stomach. Gasping, he reaches down, feeling between his thighs.

Oh.

He definitely had sex with  _someone_ last night. It couldn’t have been his own reflection- that was crazy. It just stood to reason he had done some sleepwalking and brought back a bed partner.

Right?

“Fuck… fuck…!” He looks around his room, and a wave of disorientation hits him again. He was definitely in his room but everything was backwards- as if it were a mirror image. But that was crazy, too crazy to be real, and Alfred gets up, panic clawing at his throat.

He goes to the mirror and he looks beyond- his fingers touch the glass, and it shivers and ripples under his fingers, just like it had last night in what definitely wasn’t ‘just a dream’. He starts to go through again, wanting to be out of here, wanted to feel safe and sane again.

The door opens. Al comes in, dressed in a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt. He’s got a wet rag in one hand and a plate of donuts in the other.

“Alfred…?” Al sets the plate down, looking upset. “I have breakfast. Don’t go yet… come on. You’re safe with me.”

Alfred tries not to panic. “Who… who are you? You… you can’t be real.”

The other arches a brow. “I was real enough to fuck you last night,” he says, voice lewd.

“Oh my god why would you say something like that??” Alfred is flushed and red now, covering his face with his hand. Then he realizes he’s standing naked with semen dried across his skin and he grabs for his clothes, covering himself.  

Al cackles. “You’re funny, porkchop. Come get some donuts and I’ll clean you off. You fell asleep pretty quick after.”

Alfred blushes and sits down on the edge of the bed, eyes still on the mirror. He’d make a break for it if he had to, but for now he takes a donut to munch on it as the other wipes his skin clean. The intimacy of it makes him embarrassed, but there are more pressing matters.

“What are you?”

“I’m a reflection, I guess. A doppelganger, you could say.” He shrugs. “I’m living in a dimension opposite yours.”

Alfred looks around, and sees the shadows still skitter and move and breathe the same way that they did last night. He shudders and looks away again. “This world isn’t very pleasant is it…?” he asks after a moment.

“Realized it already did you?” Al grins at him as he moves to sit next to him. “I’ve been keeping you safe from the worst of it though. I deserve a reward, don'cha think~?” He kisses his jaw gently.

Alfred pushes at him. “Why don’t we go to my room instead? It’s a lot less scary there.”

“I can’t. You have to go back alone.”

“Why? Why can’t you come?” Alfred frowns and turns to look at him, and Al’s eyes are dark and sharp.

“I’d have to kill you first- or leave you here. Haven’t you read doppelganger stories? Are doubles ever a good thing, Alfred?”

Alfred jerks away from him, and he drops the half-eaten donut on the floor. “You…” He takes a steadying breath. “You brought me here to kill me…?” He says it slowly as if he’s trying to process that.

“I did.”

Alfred bolts toward the glass again, panicked and wanting back into his safe warm bed. He wants to go back his dorm and his brother. This was not how he envisioned his life ending.

Al is quicker though, and he gets in front of him. He grabs Alfred by the shoulders. “Hey, hey listen, if I was gonna kill you, I would’ve already yeah?” 

“Don’t touch me!” Alfred fights against his hold, and there’s a tussle that ends with him pinned to his dresser.

Suddenly he’s immobile, and Al’s face is right in front of his own. His expression is stern but imploring.  

“I watched you sleep. I had you under me, fucked you. Had you so vulnerable that I could’ve killed you in a moment, but I didn’t. That counts for a whole lot in this place.”

They’re nose to nose, and Alfred is still writhing and bucking, trying to get out of his grip. But the other is strong, inhumanly so.

“Please… please let me go home…” There are tears in Alfred’s eyes now, and he’s so overwhelmed. This was not something he had ever been prepared to handle. 

Al’s face drops. “I’m gonna send you home…” Al says softly. “I was gonna. I wanted a little more time with you… I like you a lot, sunshine.”

Alfred trembles at the affection in his voice and on his face. There’s no way that Alfred wouldn’t believe him- his heart was too easy to melt.

“Really… Sit with me and we’ll kiss and talk a bit more. Then I’ll send you back yeah?” Al’s lips are more gentle than they were the night before. They press together and kiss like young lovers on their first date.

Somewhere nearby, a door comes open. Neither of them notice immediately- otherwise occupied- but it’s the footsteps that Al finally hears.  

He breaks the kiss. “Oh fuck fuck fuckity fuck. Matt. You have to go back. You have to go back now.”

“What? Matt? Who?”

The door bangs open. It’s Matthew- or at least he looks like Matthew. The eyes aren’t right, and the expression on his face is one that Alfred has never seen Matthew make. There are deep shadows under his eyes.

“Mattie?” Alfred asks before Al roughly shoves him backwards. He lands on his backside. He looks up just in time to see rage on Matt’s face.

Al positions himself between Alfred and Matt.  “Matt, Matt, come on, calm down.”

“We had a plan, Al," Matt snarls. "Get the human here and get rid of him. Not fuck him. Are you trying to ruin our chance to escape from this hell-hole??”

“Come on Matt, you know I’m a narcissist. How could I resist fucking myself huh?”

The other is trying to be placating, he realizes. Alfred is frozen in place, though, still too confused to do much more than stare at his double arguing with a double of his brother. He glances up at the mirror though after a moment and finally makes a dash for it.  

He doesn’t make it.

“Matt get off of him! Leave him alone!”

Alfred finds himself on the ground, pinned beneath Matt. The carpet rubs roughly against his face, and there are bruising fingers tightening around his throat. He’s choking, but he’s on his stomach. He can’t seem to get any kind of leverage to push the other off of him, and he thrashes as hard as he can. His vision starts to swim, blackness around the edge of consciousness.

Then there’s a grunt above him as Al rams into Matt. Alfred crawls away as quickly as he can, curls in against the corner of the bed and coughs. He’s trembling and struggling to catch his breath, body trying to get air back into his lungs. As he gasps and shakes, he watches as the others fight. 

There’s finally a crack of something breaking as knuckles hit cheekbone. Al stumbles back and falls onto the bed- his eye is already starting to bruise.

“You broke my fucking finger,” Matt says as he rounds angrily on Al.

“No, you broke your own finger on my fucking face.”

Alfred finally recovers enough to stand a bit and he tries to sneak around the fighting pair to the mirror- it’s so close if he can just…!

Matt shoves him down. “Listen, Al, I’m going through that mirror and I’ll keep up my end of the bargain. I’ll take out my double and I’ll come back to pull you through. Have fun with your ‘pet’ until then.”

Al is up in flash and trying to stop him, but it’s too late. Matt walks into Alfred’s room. When Alfred is finally on his feet at the mirror, all he feels is cold solid glass. He bangs on it, shouts at it, but the glass stays firm. Al grabs Alfred and drags him away from the mirror.

“Hey! You’re gonna break it!" 

Alfred wasn’t always the quickest on the uptake, but he had realized what was going on. “Lemme go you fucker, he’s going to kill my brother… he’s going to kill Mattie…!”

Al tries to calm him down, holds him close as the other goes limp and starts to cry.

"He’s gonna…! He’s gonna… my brother…" 

“There’s nothing we can do, not with the mirror closed. He went through in your place, and it’s closed until another human can be tempted through. One person comes in, one person can go out. It’s the way it works.”

“There’s no other way??”

“Well, sometimes we can get out other ways sometimes, but the best and easiest way to stay in your world is to... to kill our reflection. Otherwise, the shadows come to drag us back…” Al shudders. “The shadows don’t like to lose their playthings.”

Alfred is panting hard, gripping at the other. Sure, this guy had been the start of the problem, but he was the only friend that Alfred had about now. He would have to figure something out. After taking a deep calming breath, he wipes his cheeks off. Crying wasn’t going to solve anything. “Then we have to find a way to get out together, the two of us.”

Al arches a brow and slides a hand into Alfred’s hair. “The two of us huh? Together, just like that. Thought you didn’t trust me.”

“It’s hard not to trust someone who just saved you from being murdered.”

“Spose so,” Al agrees after a moment. “Well, sunshine, if anyone is gonna get us out of here, it’s gonna have to be you yeah? My only idea was getting you through the mirror and slitting you open, which clearly won’t work now.”

Alfred shudders and tries to draw away from him finally.

Al realizes how insensitive that was. He leans in and kisses his cheek. “Don’t be scared. I’ll try and help you save your brother if you try and save me huh?”

Alfred nods and takes a breath. He holds out his hand to shake “Alright, deal. Let’s go then.”

They shake on it, and Alfred gets up to pull his pajamas on. 

Al’s expression changes as the other finally heads for the door. “Are you sure you want to know what’s out there? It’s not very pleasant.”

Alfred hesitates with his fingers on the knob. The scratching is louder here, the sounds of creatures lurking in waiting sends a shudder of repulsion down his spine. “Tell me how to deal with them and we’ll go.”

Al grins at the resolute set in Alfred’s shoulders and the iron hard tone of his voice. He moves to press against the line of Alfred’s back, arms looping around his waist to hold him close. He whispers against Alfred’s ear, “Well see it’s like this…”  


	2. Sunshine

Most of the light in Matt’s world comes from mirrors. It’s why they huddle close to the glass and yearn for escape. The monsters don’t venture near the bright lights from the other side. Although they do have lamps and flashlights, they are weak and ineffectual. He’s never quite figured out why that is.

He’s about to though.

When he had stepped into Alfred’s room, it’d been dark and the curtains had been drawn. Matt is comfortable in the semi dark of the room: there’s just enough light to see by but not so much that it’s overwhelming. He glances back and sees Alfred beating on the glass, Al somewhere behind him. With a shake of his head, he looks around the room for anything useful. In the corner, there’s a baseball bat. That’s as good a weapon as any.

He grabs it to take with him.

Of course, he isn’t happy about the idea of killing Matthew. He’d seen him in the mirror for a long time, after all, and Matthew is  _his_ reflection. It’s not the other way around, regardless of what Matthew and Alfred might think. Matthew seems like a good guy, all things considered. He has a friendly smile and kind eyes, and Matt has seen him in some of his most intimate moments- mopping up his tears, giggling and jittery after his first joint, brushing his teeth just before his first time having sex (Matthew had given himself a pep talk in the mirror just before. He was still wet from the shower and it had been rather cute.)

Matt isn’t a cold blooded killer. That doesn’t mean he hasn’t been violent to protect himself in the world on the other side of the mirror. Violence is a standard part of life when the shadows have teeth. Just because violence is an everyday reality doesn’t mean he particularly enjoys it. He is trying to escape after all.

When he steps out in the living room, the curtains are drawn back to let the sunlight in, and Matt realizes for the first time why light from lamps and flashlights in his world are so useless. It is nothing compared to the searing brightness of direct sunlight. He jerks back into Alfred’s dark room as colors dance in his field of vision, and he rubs his eyes.

“Motherfuck…” he moans softly. He had never considered the fact that light on its own could hurt so bad. Leaning heavily against the wall, colors dance in his vision, and he feels a wave of dizziness washing over him. Already he’d been on the right track to a headache dealing with his idiot brother, but now there was a slow pounding in his head. He knew it’d get worse if he went back out there.

This is an obstacle that he hadn’t expected.

Suddenly a sound starts up, a light flashing on. The jingle is some familiar song he’s heard from the other side of the mirror- a phone, he knows, but they don’t have anything as fancy as cell phone service in his world. He hears someone walking toward the room now, and he knows it must be Matthew. The footsteps and the ringing stops almost at once.

“He doesn’t have his phone either…?”

Matt bites the inside of his cheek- there is his prey, right outside the door. He wonders if the other will come inside, because he really doesn’t know how well things will go if he tries to go out into the light again. He’s tensing, getting ready to strike, but the footsteps retreat.

Fuck, he’d be going out into the light again. It wouldn’t do to have his target get suspicious.

—

Matthew is worried about Alfred. After all that weird talk the night before about the man in the mirror again, Alfred is utterly gone. Alright, so Matthew isn’t his guardian and Alfred does his own thing most of the time. This morning is different though. There are a few things wrong that are impossible not to notice. Alfred had never taken his morning shower, had never filled the apartment with ridiculous 80s rock music, and had left all his books, keys, and apparently his phone behind.

Most damning of all, Alfred hadn’t had breakfast or coffee that morning. Sometimes the other would go to fast food for breakfast, but Alfred was essentially a zombie before a cup of coffee. There are no signs that Alfred had woken up at all, and there aren’t even dirty pajamas on his floor.

Matthew is quite concerned.

He’s walking back toward the living room when he hears someone behind him. Thinking it must be Alfred, he turns to greet him with a relieved smile.

Instead he finds a man with a bat in his hand and looking as though he’s in a great deal of pain. Luckily for Matthew, the intruder seems to be cringing away from the light and is trying to aim with his eyes almost closed. It’s easy to dodge the baseball bat, and as the other moves through the swing, defensive reflexes take over. Matthew slams his fist into the other man’s face, and the suddenness of it sends the other man reeling across the room.

Matthew bolts towards his room knowing that he had things to defend himself there. He’s in his room and almost to his hockey stick when arms are suddenly grabbing him round the middle, bat obviously abandoned. Heart racing, Matthew responds by slamming his head back against the other man’s face. The arms release him, and they both stumble away from each other. It had hurt for both of them, of course, but unlike his intruder, this is his territory and his eyes aren’t closed more often than open.  Adrenaline pumping, he’s already formed a plan.

Quick as lightning, he grabs his hockey stick then lunges to grab a pair of fuzzy handcuffs that his brother had bought him as a joke. He turns and finds his would-be assailant still on his knees clutching his face- Matthew can see blood on his fingers. Still, this guy attacked him, and so he moves quickly hooking one end of the handcuffs to the man’s wrist and yanks hard to get him close enough to the old radiator to snap the other end shut.

Successfully handcuffed someone to a radiator- Matthew’s life is officially an action movie now. Perhaps he should be happy his dorm is old- usually it just makes him angry but for now, having a radiator has served a purpose.  

It only makes Matthew feel better for a few moments though. He looms over the man who seems to not only have a bloodied lip and a nose bleed but also a broken finger and possibly an acute sensitivity to light. He should call the cops, but he also knows that’s a bad idea.

Despite the blood, the dark circles under his eyes, and the five o’clock shadow Matthew can tell that this man shares his face. Just as quickly as realizes this, he also realizes that his man could possibly be the only one who knows where his brother is.

“Tell me where Alfred is!” he demands as he moves too loom over him, trying to stand straighter and grip his weapon tighter. “Now!”

—

When Alfred finally opens the door, the next room is dark- almost pitch black in fact. There’s only one small source of light on the far wall. It’s coming from a small mirror that hangs on their wall. Alfred tends to use it to check his teeth after he eats. Sun light spills out from it, and he realizes that it’s probably already 9 or 10 a.m. in his world.

“It’s so dark,” he says quietly, watching the shadows skitter and writhe. Al had told him not to be afraid, to ignore them.

Fear excites them.

“Most of our light comes from your world,” Al says against his neck. “Why else would we huddle around mirrors and hope to cross?”

“I can barely see,” he says. “Don’t you have a flashlight or…?”

“Let your eyes adjust, light attracts them. They can’t come into the light but a flashlight can’t light up the entire area around you can it?”

Alfred shivers and nods. At least Al, with his flashing almost glowing eyes, seems to be able to navigate. He takes a step forward into the dark, valiantly trying to ignore how the darkness shifts around him. Al is still close against his side, and this, at least, helps keep him calm.

Alfred walks to the mirror first. “Can I see out from here? Can I check on Matthew?”

_Things_ are curling around his ankles and tugging gently at his clothes. He’s doing his best to focus on Al’s hands steadying him, but  _oh god something wet just slid along over his foot_.

“You can. He probably can’t see you though. You humans have an awful habit of seeing what you want to see.”

There’s no one in the room inside the mirror yet.

“What'ya mean?”

Al arches a brow and sets his chin on Alfred’s shoulder.

“When you saw me in the mirror, what did you see? Just yourself right? Until you became aware I was there, then you saw the different color of my hair, the darker eyes. We aren’t perfect copies.” This gives Alfred pause- he had found that confusing before, of course, but between the sex and the fighting had never managed to ask.

“But you’re always there right? When I look into my mirror?”

Al gives an amused snort. “Of course not. I’m a voyeur but not that much of a creep.” He shakes his head and continues. “Sometimes a reflection is just a reflection, but sometimes we’re there, peering out and trying to get you to see us. You humans don’t seem to be able to fully grasp the supernatural- if you don’t believe it or your mind can’t process it… you just don’t see it.” Al nuzzles his neck and presses against his back. “Humans expect a reflection, and that’s what they see– which is why it’s so difficult to get you peer close enough to see the differences between you and us.”

“That’s why your Mattie looks different too huh?”

Al starts to speak, but then Matthew is coming into view.

“Oh! There he is!” Alfred cries. Despite knowing that Matthew can’t see him, he pounds on the glass anyways. It’s such a small mirror though, and even if he was readily visible, it would be easy to miss him. “Well he’s safe for now…!”  

Then Matthew pauses and turns with a smile. Then a baseball bat swings into the view of the mirror and the fight starts. Al and Alfred both call out to the brothers and move close to the glass. The fight in the living room-kitchen area is quick, and Matthew retreats to his room. Alfred’s blood is pounding in his ears now, worry making it hard to breathe.  

“Matthew! Mattie! Fuck…!” As soon as Matthew bolts for his room, Alfred does the same. Al calls out to him and gives chase, but Alfred won’t be slowed down. He busts into his brothers’ room, layout of the place still similar though disorienting and backwards.

The mirror in Matthew’s room is larger and he can see more.

“Watch out!!” he screams as Matt catches Matthew round the middle but cheers when his brother gets free. “Way to use your head, Mattie, get that fucker!”

Al looks worried about Matt, but he’s much more subdued about it, leaning in to watch closely. Only when the fight is over and Matt is cuffed do they both breathe sighs of relief. Alfred grins and seems rather pleased.

“Wow he handled that much better than you did earlier,” Al says, amused.

Alfred turns a pout on Al. “Well, unlike Mattie out there, I was trying to deal with the fact I was pulled into  _another dimension_ by a dude who didn’t know if he wanted to kill me or fuck me.”

Al is smirking but finally he has to concede. “Too true. Well, see now? He’s safe and we now have time to find our window into getting through to your world without worrying too much about your bro, yeah?”

They both look to the glass again, and Alfred knows that Matt can see them there.

 “Yeah. Yeah let’s do it.”

“Okay, sunshine, let’s go then.” Al takes his hand, and Alfred follows, albeit reluctantly, from the room. Matthew seems like he has things covered for now- he’d just have to trust him.

—

“I said, where’s Alfred??” Matthew repeats and smacks the hockey stick across his own palm in a way that Matt thinks is supposed to be intimidating.

Of course, Matt is unimpressed.

“Too bright,” he says in a gruff mumble. His head was aching badly now. With the curtains open, it’s too bright to keep his eyes open for very long, but even when they’re closed, colors and dots fill his vision.

It makes his head ache worse.

“Oh,” Matthew says. “Just a sec.”

Matt closes his eyes and tries not to smirk. Even bloody and restrained, he’s got Matthew trying to make him comfortable. Matt knows kindness like this can easily backfire. Soon, he can tell that the light is going down, and he hears curtains being drawn. Just as he’s about to open his eyes, glasses are shoved onto his face. When he opens his eyes, he finds he’s wearing sunglasses.

Of course, in his world, these are unnecessary, but he recognizes them for what they are. He turns a slightly surprised expression up at Matthew who starts to wipe the blood clean from Matt’s face. With him so close, it would be easy, so easy, to jerk Matthew down and try his luck knocking him out. He decides not to, though, and allows Matthew to clean the blood from his lips, nose, and chin. To be this kind to a man who’d attacked him, Matthew is either an angel or stupid. Possibly both.

Matt rationalizes his own hesitance to just grab him by telling himself that he’d be unsuccessful with his finger broken. Admitting any sort of affection for a man on a hit list- especially one’s own- would be painfully ridiculous. But honestly, it’s getting harder to think about hurting him now that he can see the sweet innocent young man face to face having a conversation like this. 

The bravado is gone from Matthew now, and as he tosses the bloody tissues aside, he sits heavily down on the edge of his bed. His whole body sags a little, and Matt feels his heart speed up a little at the expression of tired, pleading worry that Matthew suddenly focuses on him.

No one in his world was ever as adorable as this boy. Even though they share a face, the way that they wear it is so different that he wonders if strangers would even realize that it’s the same.

“Just… please. Tell me where Alfred is.”

Matt takes a breath. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

“Yeah well,” Matthew says, giving him a small wry smile. “A man who could be my twin bum rushes me in my own dorm room so I’m willing to believe outlandish stories at this particular moment.”

There’s a long moment of quiet while Matt rolls over what to do. Finally he turns his eyes toward the mirror. “He’s in there. With my brother.”

“Your…brother…” Matthew turns to look at the mirror and he bites his lip. He remembers what Alfred had told him before, about the man in the mirror who wasn’t quite him with hair that wasn’t the right color. “His hair wouldn’t happen to be red would it?”

“Yeah, that’s him,” Matt says, tired and leaning against the wall. “Tricked your brother through the glass.”

Matthew takes a deep steadying breath. The cogs are clearly turning in his head. “And is Alfred… alright? Your brother didn’t try to hurt him.”

“No,” he says, scowling already at the thought. “Quite the opposite in fact.”

“Ahh,” Matthew says, letting out a slow happy breath. “Good. Well, how do I get him back?”

Then suddenly Matt has a new plan, a plan that prevents him from having to kill anyone. If Matthew wanted to be reunited with his brother, he could do that. Find a way to get Matthew through the glass and pull his Al out. No one would have to be a murderer, and he and his brother would be free.

The guilty voice at the back of his head telling him these two human boys wouldn’t last long in that place goes  _mostly_ ignored. 

“They’ll have to come back to the glass,” Matt says. “They aren’t there, just now. But when they come back I might be able to get him back through.”

There’s a long moment of quiet then as Matthew mulls this over.

“Alright,“ Matthew says slowly and he frowns. "But I don’t trust you.”

“Good boy,” Matt says and manages a sardonic smile. 


End file.
